Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1887-09-10

trackless forests to the heart of Contra
Africa, where foot of white man had never
before trod. The lecture gave clear and
graphic picturings of the country of the
half animal. half-child man; of his re-
sources-a stick for his foes, two sticks crossed
for his fire, bundle of sticks tied together
and set on end for his house; the woman,
his serf himself the prey of superstition and
pestilence, with absolutely no knowledge of
dates or time and no comprehension of the
commonest objects that we see about us.
Life there is purely primitive and could
never be appreciated except by sight. For
its preservation the men climb trees and cut
off the small branches, which fall upon the
hard dry, unyielding surface of the earth
To these they set fire and soon reduce them
to ashes. When the rain comes it softens
the crust enough to form with the ashes a
sort of sub-soil into which they drop
millet This ends their labor for the
year. The crop never fails; the women
gather it, crush it and stir it into a
sort of dough. This in bulk about the size
of baby, and thrust into the mouth in
huge fistfuls, serves for a meal, which the
women are never allowed to share, and of
which they can only have the remains. A
part of the year they have nothing but the
food upon which a monkey might subsist-
roots herbs and the like. The outer and
inner bark of trees torn into strips and
woven, or plated by the women, forms the
only attempt at clothing. They have native
chiefs to whom they pay certain amount
of respect, but no attempt at any form of
government and when man dies, his few
belongings, the principal one, his bow and
arrows, are buried with him the bow cut in
the middle to show that its work is done.
The dirt and the influence of malaral
fevers, smallpox and other pestilential dis
eases were declared indescribable and not to
be evaded-every one succumbs sooner or
later-and whole villages are infested at one
time and laid waste by them. Only once
the professor saw little white settlement;
it was on the Congo river and was the En-
glish missionary station. 1t was situated in
a spot of marvellous natural beauty, and the
row of neat white cottages, with clean
graveled walk, presented a remarkable con-
trast to everything he had hereto fore seen.
He entered the manse. 1t was in perfect
order there were curtains to the windows,
pictures on the walls books on the table,
but no living person to welcome the stranger.
He went to each one of the cottages, the last
of which was a blacksmith shop, with the
same result. Behind the cottages was row
of graves, to which a native led him, and
which told the whole sad story. The pro-
fessor confined himself mainly to what
he considered would prove of general
interest but his acc cunt of the OPP
erations of the white ant was very
curious. He recaptulates the observations
of Mr.. Gladstone in reference to the earth
worm, and his remarks that this industrious
little agriculturalist turns over the soil of
all England once in seven years. He found
that the earth-worm could not operate upon
the hard soil of Central Africa, and he set
himself to work to discover how these nee
essary underground operations are per-
formed. He found that it was by an eter-
nally tunneling process, carried on under
ground by the white ants whose engineering
operations penetrated the earth, and were
carried to the trunks of trees, up which they
pierce tube-like excavation, working their
way to the outer surface, and bringing with
them myriads of grains of soil, which winds
and rains redistribute.
Among the visitors who have been assidu-
Gus attendants were Mr.. Yam Phon Lee, the
young Chinese gentleman who recently
graduated at Yale and has since married a
young American lady, who accompanied
him and seems to be an admiring and de-
voted WIFE He intends to make his home
in this country, and the final paper of Sec
ton l was an eloquent one from him on the
Chinese question from Chinese standpoint
The principal excursions made by the as
ISOLATION were to West Point, to Blackwell's
Island, round the bay stopping at Governors
Island, to Long Branch, and to Sandy
Hook taking in little of New Jersey, and
some experience in dynamite. The final trip
was to Staten Island to see the "Fall of Baby
Iona marvellous spectacle-never rivaled
for magnitude, color, combination, graceful
dress, grouping, movement and variety.